Our series will help you tackle the world's greatest train journeys. This
week: the Canadian.

The most relaxing and convivial way to cross the immensity of Canada is on the Canadian, the flagship of VIA, which runs the national passenger service. Its sleek, silver 1950s cars are redolent of the first railway era, before prosaic planes destroyed the glamour of long-distance trains; its uniformed attendants wait beside each car to welcome you to your seat or compartment. During the 4,467km (2,792-mile) journey between Toronto and Vancouver, you gain a sense of the changing topography of five provinces, and if you’re in a sleeping car (which entitles you to enjoy freshly cooked food in the dining cars) you can watch the passing show from a “vistadome” car.

Routes

The five-day, four-night journey across four time zones offers extraordinary contrasts, from empty boreal forest to vibrant cities, from prairies of wheat and grass to soaring mountains. It begins at Toronto’s Union station (pictured below), built between 1915 and 1920 and the finest Beaux Arts-style station in Canada. Its sweeping façade faces the Royal York Hotel, built in 1929 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in château style and today a Fairmont hotel. Union’s great hall is a wonderfully imposing entrance – even if the approach to the tracks is along dingy passageways.

Leaving Union station, the train passes the city’s most famous symbol, the CN Tower, which was the world’s tallest structure when completed in 1976. There’s a monument to the Chinese workers who helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, fulfilling a promise to British Columbia that a transcontinental railway would be built if BC joined the Canadian Confederation. Though the Canadian train leaves Toronto on CPR tracks, for most of the journey it travels over the more northerly transcontinental route of CPR’s rival, Canadian National Railways (CNR).

Once the commuter stations end, the forest begins. British ancestry is obvious from the names of many settlements en route and even from the waterways – the train crisscrosses the Trent-Severn Canal/Waterway before reaching the distinctive landscape of the Canadian Shield.

The Shield covers more than half of Canada, its thin soil supporting dense boreal forest broken up by bare rock, rivers and a multitude of lakes. It’s a measure of the scale of the country that, at Chapleau, the train passes a game reserve of 7,000 square kilometres (2,703 square miles) - the largest in the world. Moose, deer, mountain goats and even bears can be glimpsed during the journey. The occasional sight of a smelter reminds one of the mineral riches buried beneath the Shield, and station museums and even plinthed steam locomotives and cabooses on platforms testify to the central role of the railway in Canada’s recent history.

By the time you’ve seen your billionth spruce tree, you’re ready for a change of scenery. Ontario’s forests give way to the farms of Manitoba and land so flat that the horizon sometimes merges with the sky. After so much emptiness, it almost comes as a shock to see the Winnipeg skyline (below). The hour or so pause there gives time to admire the magnificent station, designed by the same architects as New York’s Grand Central. Its rotunda has provided a setting for concerts and even been decorated with streamers and lanterns for the city’s New Year’s Ball.

The stop is long enough to explore the Forks public market: cafés and restaurants in an historic warehouse at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, a trading spot for thousands of years.

Some of the most fertile fields in the prairies lie west of Manitoba. Sadly, many of the colourful wooden grain elevators that dotted the prairies have been demolished, replaced by enormous, centralised concrete towers. Past Saskatoon, the country becomes hillier; oil refineries appear, and then Alberta’s provincial capital, Edmonton. Landscapes on a gangantuan scale start beyond Hinton, with the appearance of the Miette Range (below) – a great phalanx of bare rock, flecked with snow even in summer, rising above the carpet of spruce and pine.

Camera shutters click constantly as the train heads into the mountains, slowing obligingly to allow snaps of the most spectacular waterfalls and tall bridges. Jasper is a popular place to break the journey or board VIA’s Skeena train to Prince Rupert, but for onward passengers there is time to take a stroll along the main street. In high season, the Canadian is such a long train that staff cleaning the windows at Jasper zip up and down the platform on rollerblades.

Books are discarded and the neck gets a good work-out as every twist in the track opens up an enthralling landscape. Among so many peaks it’s hard to identify particular mountains, but the tallest in the Canadian Rockies, Mount Robson (3,954m/12,972ft), can be seen to the north. Shortly after Kamloops the Thompson River widens into Kamloops Lake, which attracts mallards, spotted sandpiper and osprey.

The Fraser River canyon is so narrow that there is room for only one line of steel on each bank; since the CPR already occupied the “easier” side, the CNR had to build along the opposite bank. The result is some spectacular engineering, with frequent tunnels and avalanche shelters.

As the railway squeezes past Hell’s Gate, you may glimpse white-water rafters battling the swirling waters of the canyon, and fish ladders built to help spawning salmon battle upstream. At the mouth of the canyon is the huge black rock named in 1861 after Lady Franklin, widow of the explorer who disappeared in the high Arctic wastes, who visited the area shortly after the gold rush. The train emerges from the defile into an abruptly softened topography – the fertile market-gardening area and dairy farms of the Fraser Valley, which supply so many of Vancouver’s best restaurants.

Journey’s end is at the old CNR terminus, which opened in 1919, with its surviving 1930s neon signs saying “Pacific Central”. Vancouver, built on water and with the North Shore mountains as a backdrop, is one of the world’s most spectacularly situated cities and a fitting climax to the journey.

Highlight

The crossing of the Rockies, which begins on the fourth day as the train leaves Hinton, is the undoubted scenic highlight of the journey, and it’s wise to take a seat in one of the vistadomes quickly after breakfast.

The Canadian runs year round up to three times a week, and a journey in any season is rewarding.

Cost

A curtained upper berth costs from £758 to £1,214, a curtained lower berth from £892 to £1,428 and a single cabin or shared double cabin from £1,145 to £1,831pp, depending on the season. These sleeping-car prices include all meals.

On board

Sleeping-car compartments have en suite toilet and washing facilities, and the train includes vistadomes, lounge car, showers and dining cars serving freshly cooked food. There are four choices of main course for dinner, and dishes are chosen where possible to reflect the region you’re passing through (shrimps and scallops with a Saskatoon berry chutney; Canadian lake trout in horseradish and breadcrumbs with ravigote sauce).

Thanks to the warmth of Canadians and the nature of such trains, the trip is a sociable experience. One of the social hubs is the Park Car at the end of the train, which has a bullet lounge with panoramic windows and bar. Underneath the central vistadome is a lounge offering DVD entertainment, some specifically for children.

Cabins for two have collapsible armchairs that make way for upper and lower beds at night. They also have a small wardrobe. Both single and double cabins have an electrical outlet, fan, private toilet and sink. Doors lock from the inside and the shower is only a few steps away. Some cabins can be combined for families, and there are a few cabins for three.

The cheaper upper and lower berths, screened by a reinforced privacy curtain, convert by day into armchair seats. Lavatory, washing and shower facilities are close by.

What to pack

Passengers are asked to limit themselves to two moderate-sized pieces of luggage, but there is a baggage car for items not needed during the journey. Clothing needs depend largely on season, though the air-conditioned train evens out the temperature. Take an iPod and load up the reading tablet, or carry some good books.

What to read

The best guidebook is the Scenic Rail Guide to Western Canada by William Coo (Greey de Pencer Books), which is mistitled in that it covers the entire route of the Canadian. A more recently written alternative is the Canadian Rail Travel Guide by Daryl T Adair (Fitzhenry & Whiteside). Both have mile-by-mile route guides; the former is more detailed.

The history of the Canadian National Railway and its relations with other railways is well told in The Asian Dream by Donald MacKay (Douglas & McIntyre).

To while away the longueurs of the prairies, try the very readable evocation of Manitoba small-town life in The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (Phoenix) or anything by Alice Munro or Douglas Copeland.

If you are making the journey in winter, take The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Quercus), which brilliantly conjures up the frozen north as the backdrop to an exciting story.

What to listen to en route

For Canadian country and folk music, try kd Lang’s 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel, the Wailin’ Jennys or Cara Luft. It may seem incongruous, but the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould’s rendition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is sublime.

What to watch before you go

You can see what the journey would be like by watching the DVD The Great Canadian Train Ride, made with the co-operation of VIA.